Bury me
by trombonistnicole
Summary: General Grievous has removed his implants. What will this do to him? Possibly a one-shot, but I might continue it if people enjoy. Read and review!
This is probably just a one-shot, but if people like it, I can continue the story. I don't own anything. Please read, review, and enjoy!

Yellow eyes glared from within the bleached bone mask. Ragged raspy breaths marked with frequent coughs filled the empty silence. Metal claws clinked against the floor as the massive cyborg paced, back and forth, so deprived of true sleep that he couldn't remember what it felt like. Last night's pounding headache had been alleviated when he had convinced Asajj Ventress to perform open brain surgery on him. Something had changed because of the removal of most of his implants. He wasn't sure what the implants had been doing to him.

His flagship, The Invisible Hand, entered the system of Ibaar, a neutral planet covered in treacherous chasms and jagged mountains. The Republic had been defending the planet's pathetic residents in order to maintain their fuel trade relations. He walked to the bridge, his talons making high-pitched clicks at every step.

Looking into space, he saw The Negotiator orbiting the planet. Why waste Kenobi here, he wondered. Why waste me here?

General Kenobi's image popped up as a hologram.

"Hello," he greeted pleasantly in his Coruscanti accent.

"Surrender, Jedi!" he snarled.

"When did you start negotiating, General?" he asked, his voice so infuriatingly calm it made Grievous want to strangle him.

"I would think that a Jedi would abandon his pride to avoid collateral damage," he mocked. "Surrender and nobody dies."

Obi-wan crossed his arms. "I don't exactly trust you, General. How do I know you're not lying to me?" His face betrayed no emotion.

"Very well," Grievous replied. "I can't prove to you that I'm telling the truth, so I guess I have no choice but to kill you all!"

With that, he shut down communications with Kenobi.

Boarding a shuttle, Grievous readied himself for battle. He would leave his cape; he didn't need it. He checked all of his joints for stickiness and separated his two arms into four. Normally he would leave them together until the situation called for all four arms, but he had a feeling Kenobi would be waiting for him.

The shuttle dodged lasers as it attempted to land, but, when a wing burst into flames as they neared the surface, Grievous kicked the glass and leapt the rest of the distance. His reinforced heels landed without injury. The shuttle rocketed past Grievous and plunged into a black abyss.

Unfazed by the wind, Grievous began to run towards the Republic base, his six-legged movement faster than that of any human. The jagged rocks stabbing through the surface presented no problem for Grievous, and he arrived quickly at the Republic base.

General Kenobi was standing outside, his eyes closed in peaceful meditation.

"I'm surprised you continued with your attack after the destruction of your shuttle. Won't that make running away a bit… difficult?" Obi-wan opened his small blue-gray eyes with a smirk.

"Your words are as empty as the Republic's soul!" he exclaimed. Why did I just speak in Kaleesh?

"Excuse me?" Obi-wan inquired, lifting his eyebrows.

"You… can't do what you're saying you're going to do," Grievous repeated, this time in Basic. What is wrong with me? "All humans and their allies are trash! All of them!" he snarled, once again on Kaleesh.

"General, if you're threatening me, you're very bad at it," Kenobi taunted, clearly unaware of Grievous' confusion.

"Jedi! You can't see what I can't forget. You can't understand what horrors your Republic has wrought." Grievous' head was spinning as he continued to speak in his native language. What is going on with me?

Out of nowhere, Kenobi unsheathed his lightsaber and pounced at Grievous. But the hatred and the anger that Grievous normally felt during a duel was strangely absent. Grievous fought back, but had no urge to actually hurt his foe.

As the two continued to fight, they progressed through the area, fighting on the uneven terrain. As they neared the chasm, Kenobi tripped and fell off of the edge, howling in surprise. Grievous grabbed his hand instinctively.

"Nobody deserves to be denied the opportunity to say goodbye," Grievous murmured as he pulled Kenobi back up to the surface.

Kenobi looked shocked, nearly speechless. "General, what happened to you?"

Grievous realized that he had just saved the life of his nemesis. "You must forget this happened and surrender your base, or I will run a lightsaber through you. But know that, when I send a body to the Temple, it is so the Jedi can say a proper goodbye. It is not a threat."

Kenobi crossed his arms. "What are you going to do with me and my men?"

"You have one hour to leave. Everything and everyone not gone by then belongs to the Confederacy."

"You're just letting me go?"

"Go! Before I change my mind!"

Kenobi put his hands up in surrender and ran back to the base. Within the next hour, everyone had evacuated.

Grievous contacted Dooku. "I have taken the base, but the Jedi escaped."

"Good," Dooku replied. "Ventress is no longer my apprentice. If you see her, kill her on sight."

"What did she do?" Grievous asked.

"That is not your concern. Don't ask questions." With that, Dooku ended the transmission.

"I guess you should make your decision, General." Asajj's smooth voice sounded from behind him. "Who's side are you on?"

"When I was young, I was known as Qymaen jai Sheelal. Alongside my friend, Ronderu, I fought the Huks away from our village. We were battling on the edge of a cliff, and the Huks were falling off. That's why we didn't move away from the cliff. Ronderu was stabbed by one of the Huks and her body fell into the ocean. I tried to recover it, but I couldn't find her. I made the treacherous journey to ask the false gods to allow me to say goodbye, to give her a proper burial, but they don't exist. That very day, everything good in me died. I renamed myself Grievous, to remind myself that I could never stop grieving. Today the good in me lived. It took a deep breath of this air and decided that it would not let me keep up this pointless slaughter. Everything good in me is alive in you, Asajj." Grievous took her in his arms. "I am Qymaen and you are everything."


End file.
